And they are both vying for the attention – and checkbooks—of team owner John Henry and chairman Tom Werner.

These are trying times for the fans of two different Fenway Sports Group franchises that operate 3,126 miles and one big ocean apart. But as different as the fans of the Liverpool Reds and Boston Red Sox are, they are in many ways remarkably the same.

It’s been 22 years since the venerable Liverpool Football Club last celebrated a league title and even though Henry and Werner came to the financial rescue of the club when they purchased it two years ago, LFC continues to struggle on the field and stumble off it.

Although the Red Sox owners restructured Liverpool from top to bottom, the club finished in eighth place last season and currently resides in 11th place in the 20-team Premier League.

And whether you’re a Sox fan from Southie or a scouser rooting for the Reds, you’ll accept nothing less than a championship caliber club and an all-in effort from the people who run it.

Effort, for the rabid fan bases, means having ownership invest money in the team by spending on top talent. How much Henry will spend to improve the squad is a hotly debated issue for fans of both teams and ownership has a lot of work to do to win back fans this winter.

The 69-93, last-place Red Sox have started the rebuilding process, most notably by throwing millions around for a couple of free-agent replacement parts at the baseball winter meetings in Nashville.

Come January, Henry and Werner are going to have to pry open the wallets to make good on a colossal gaffe in Liverpool that took place on the transfer deadline day last August, the equivalent of baseball’s trading deadline. That’s when Liverpool decided to dump high-priced Andy Caroll, but failed to bring in a replacement striker, making Henry and Werner look foolish, frugal, and without a plan to LFC fans everywhere.

But like some Red Sox fans, Liverpool fans for the most part are willing to be patient, especially after the chaos under the stewardship of former American owners Tom Hicks and George Gillette.

“These American owners a lot better than the last ones,” one fan said outside of Anfield, LFC’s beloved home. “As long as they rebuild it, then I can’t see any problems. They made one mistake really with [Andy] Carroll going out.”

But many remain skeptical until they see results.

“The initial excitement [of Henry’s purchase of the club] depreciated a bit because funds weren’t available in the transfer window … We’ve had owners from the States before,” said another fan who sells Liverpool memorabilia before the matches. “We’re all a bit concerned about that.”

Like Red Sox fans who saw $262 million worth of star players shipped to Los Angeles in August, Liverpool fans understand you can’t only throw money at the club’s problems.

“I like these American owners,” one fan said inside the popular Anfield pub The Albert, “Spending money is easy, but spending the right money on the right players takes an awful lot more … we’ll give them time.”

For the most part, Liverpool fans like the direction new manager Brendan Rodgers is taking the club, and are getting excited about the long-term outlook of the young team LFC has been fielding this season.

“It’s going to take us a little while to get back out there [with the top teams],” one Liverpool fan based in London said. “There’s a lot of ‘we want success immediately.’ But you have to live in the real world. We nearly went bust. If it weren’t for John Henry, we wouldn’t be Liverpool.”

Like their cousins across the pond who might be questioning the dollars given to outfielder Shane Victorino, LFC fans know the cost of talent, and the cost of overpaying players who underperformed under the pressure of playing for a franchise that is constantly in the sports spotlight.

“The money that was spent last year especially just seems like a lot of money that could have been put to better use,” one Liverpool fan said at Anfield. “I think that’s what’s going to be the feeling all-around because we know the price of players, we can see what other teams are buying them in at, so I think the owners themselves would feel a little disappointed.”